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Saturday, February 4, 2017

Bihać Airport project to resume

The ambitious redevelopment of Bihać Airport in north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina, initially scheduled to commence last February, has received renewed backing from the Federal government which will provide the necessary funding in order for construction to begin this year. A groundbreaking ceremony was cancelled in 2016 after the government snubbed the project and failed to provide the required funds. However, the Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Fadil Novalić, said last week, "The city of Bihać missed out on an initial investment of one million euros because they failed to submit an investment plan. We will provide one million euros for Bihać Airport this year and will inject a further million each subsequent year".

The Mayor of Bihać, Šuhret Fazlić, says construction of the airport's terminal building is likely to begin this year. "We have already formed the public enterprise JP Aerodrom Bihać, which manages the airport, while all property ownership issues have been resolved. We must now conduct a feasibility study, obtain the necessary project documentation and determine how to secure additional funding in order to begin work this year. A public private partnership is also possible", Mr Fazlić said. Turkey's Çelebi Aviation Holding, a ground handling services company, had previously expressed interest to partake in the project. "There is also interest from a Saudi investment fund based in Dubai", Smail Toromanović, the advisor to the Mayor of Bihać, previously said.

Bihać Airport's redevelopment includes the lengthening of the runway from the current 1.200 metres to 2.000 metres, as well as the construction of a new control tower and passenger terminal. "This project is of great importance to the region for the development of both the local tourism industry and economy, even if the airport caters only for charter flights. The land around the airfield is owned by the city, so there are no issues concerning possession rights", Mr Toromanović noted. The Bihać-based Euroing company was responsible for the design of the terminal. Once built, it will become Bosnia and Herzegovina's fifth commercial airport, following Sarajevo, Tuzla, Mostar and Banja Luka, which handled just over 1.230.000 passengers in 2016. Bihać is located near the Croatian border and is the country's eighth largest city.

While it might all look like a joke, Bosnia's geography is such that western Bosnia does actually need an airport. The roads between Bihac to Sarajevo/Tuzla/BL are quite bad. Same as to reach the boarder to got Zagreb or the Croatian coast.

Re/ the highway comment, Vilnius in Lithuania is similar in that it's doing much better than LJU (~3.3M PAX/year with a population of 1.7M), but has considerably better highways (comparable to Slovenia).

Ljubljana and Slovenia are close to most things that are interesting to Slovenians - Croatia, Austria, Italy, southern Germany, Switzerland..whether that be business, tourism, education, and so on..these are also countries from where the majority of visitors to Slovenia come. The Baltics on the other hand are further away from western and central Europe

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LIVERY OF THE WEEK

Jetstar special

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Australian low cost carrier Jetstar has unveiled a special livery on one of its Airbus A320s to promote the first country-specific version of the board game Scrabble. Manufacturer Mattel has included a list of local slang in its official glossary that are also featured on the jet, including words such as "Bonza", "Mollydooker" and "Devo". The A320 also includes the airline's name spelled out with Scrabble tiles. The jet is being used on both domestic and international routes and features Scrabble branding inside the cabin as well

GLOBAL AVIATION NEWS

Lufthansa, easyJet favourites for Air Berlin

Lufthansa Group and UK-based easyJet have been selected as preferred bidders for the main assets of the insolvent Air Berlin, the German carrier has confirmed. Lufthansa also submitted a bid for Air Berlin's Austria-based subsidiary Niki, which could be integrated into its LCC arm Eurowings. Air Berlin administrator Lucas Flother had planned to keep these decisions confidential until September 25, after Germany’s general elections. Air Berlin said in a statement that the creditors’ committee will continue talks with the two carriers until October 12 with the aim of selling Air Berlin's air transport assets. Talks with bidders interested in other assets will continue in parallel. Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr said at a media event in Frankfurt that Lufthansa’s bid for Air Berlin's assets is focused on securing the 38 Airbus A319/320s it wet leases from Air Berlin. The Star Alliance member is also interested in a further 20 to 40 aircraft, without creating antitrust concerns. Those 38 wet-leased aircraft carry about 1.000 passengers a day, mainly for LCC Eurowings, and Lufthansa’s priority is to keep that operation stable. Lufthansa would need around 3.000 new employees as it seeks to build market share following the exit of Air Berlin, which has 8.000 employees. However, Lufthansa is not interested in Air Berlin's long-haul routes because it said Eurowings can grow this segment on its own. Air Berlin will end long-haul operations September 25.
Source: ATW